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Star Wars: The Old Republic has a new feature for player to enjoy in the form of a State of the Game letter from Executive Producer Jeff Hickman. In the inaugural edition, Hickman talks about how the team came to the decision to move SWTOR to a free-to-play revenue model, why developers are leaving BioWare, bugs and Oceania among other topics.

Answer: People leave for a lot of reasons. Some have worked on the project for 6+ years and are simply tired and want to go work on something else. Others may not agree with the direction that the game is heading – Free-to-Play is not for everyone and requires a big shift in thinking and culture within the studio. Still others do not have the right skills for the roles that we have as the studio evolves and changes. When any single person leaves, whether we make the decision or they do, it is difficult, but the studio and game live on and thrive as we change, actually thrive because we change. The core of what makes the game and studio great are still here; quality in our game and in our workplace, people that are passionate about both, a camaraderie with each other that helps us support one another, and key people like James Ohlen (who was at BioWare from the very start) who continue to help us carry the banner of BioWare and who are dedicated to help evolve and improve Star Wars: The Old Republic.

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It's sad when someone has to or is forced to leave a job they love, but change happens and sometimes it's for the better when it happens. I hope that the changes that come about as a result of the game shifting to the F2P model are enough to bring this game back to life and make it worth playing as there just wasn't enough content the first time through t make it worth spending more than the original purchase for (and that was stretching it a bit even there).

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Dear Jeff, I was very disappointed in your state of the game message. You really do not understand the problems of your game at all. I guess if you did you would doubtless throw your hands up realizing that it is probably not repairable the way it is designed. So much money wasted.... Let me give you a hint, it was not content that was the problem.

Read the thread on this site discussing Systems, it just might give you a clue the major issues your game faces.

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Even though I am a huge Star Wars geek, I refuse to play SWTOR even now that it is F2P. Myself and many others tried to offer suggestions during beta and even fell for buying the collector's edition only to be let down upon launch. I tried playing the game a few months after launch but the devs there will never reverse the damage they have done in trying to create a believable SW mmo.

The game is and always will be WoW in space, which is a waste of time and money even now.

Most devs these days don't get that the reason MMOs became popular in the first place was the vairety of options in creating a character they could connect to and affect the persistant world in which their characters lived.

These days, most devs are obsessed with trying to make a quick buck and push out unfinished cookie-cutter MMOs with little to know choice of options in character creation living in tiny cloned gameworlds using unimaginative Uis. Not to mention always releasing with few content and zero replayability.

If anything, it is those devs who will ultimately cause the fading of the mmo genre because they are burning gamers out who end up going from game to game trying to find one to stick to that is like the MMOs of old.

I say to the devs, bring back choice, variety, originality, and embrace the sandbox genre.

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Originally posted by Czanrei

Even though I am a huge Star Wars geek, I refuse to play SWTOR even now that it is F2P. Myself and many others tried to offer suggestions during beta and even fell for buying the collector's edition only to be let down upon launch. I tried playing the game a few months after launch but the devs there will never reverse the damage they have done in trying to create a believable SW mmo.

The game is and always will be WoW in space, which is a waste of time and money even now.

Most devs these days don't get that the reason MMOs became popular in the first place was the vairety of options in creating a character they could connect to and affect the persistant world in which their characters lived.

These days, most devs are obsessed with trying to make a quick buck and push out unfinished cookie-cutter MMOs with little to know choice of options in character creation living in tiny cloned gameworlds using unimaginative Uis. Not to mention always releasing with few content and zero replayability.

If anything, it is those devs who will ultimately cause the fading of the mmo genre because they are burning gamers out who end up going from game to game trying to find one to stick to that is like the MMOs of old.

I say to the devs, bring back choice, variety, originality, and embrace the sandbox genre.

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Originally posted by Czanrei

Even though I am a huge Star Wars geek, I refuse to play SWTOR even now that it is F2P. Myself and many others tried to offer suggestions during beta and even fell for buying the collector's edition only to be let down upon launch. I tried playing the game a few months after launch but the devs there will never reverse the damage they have done in trying to create a believable SW mmo.

The game is and always will be WoW in space, which is a waste of time and money even now.

Most devs these days don't get that the reason MMOs became popular in the first place was the vairety of options in creating a character they could connect to and affect the persistant world in which their characters lived.

These days, most devs are obsessed with trying to make a quick buck and push out unfinished cookie-cutter MMOs with little to know choice of options in character creation living in tiny cloned gameworlds using unimaginative Uis. Not to mention always releasing with few content and zero replayability.

If anything, it is those devs who will ultimately cause the fading of the mmo genre because they are burning gamers out who end up going from game to game trying to find one to stick to that is like the MMOs of old.

I say to the devs, bring back choice, variety, originality, and embrace the sandbox genre.

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i got treated like shit by you guys i tried to go on the forums to give feedback instead i got a bann warning. nothing i had said was said negatively, you guys tried to control the flow of information. way to much underhanded crap came out of bio/ea. you guys failed on a big level mmos are community based games the moment you tried to silence people you shot yourself in the foot, because there are many more forums other then the official forums. while u can buy out some(like mmorpg.com) you cant buy out all of them.

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Originally posted by Czanrei

Even though I am a huge Star Wars geek, I refuse to play SWTOR even now that it is F2P. Myself and many others tried to offer suggestions during beta and even fell for buying the collector's edition only to be let down upon launch. I tried playing the game a few months after launch but the devs there will never reverse the damage they have done in trying to create a believable SW mmo.

The game is and always will be WoW in space, which is a waste of time and money even now.

Most devs these days don't get that the reason MMOs became popular in the first place was the vairety of options in creating a character they could connect to and affect the persistant world in which their characters lived.

These days, most devs are obsessed with trying to make a quick buck and push out unfinished cookie-cutter MMOs with little to know choice of options in character creation living in tiny cloned gameworlds using unimaginative Uis. Not to mention always releasing with few content and zero replayability.

If anything, it is those devs who will ultimately cause the fading of the mmo genre because they are burning gamers out who end up going from game to game trying to find one to stick to that is like the MMOs of old.

I say to the devs, bring back choice, variety, originality, and embrace the sandbox genre.

100% agreed, devs have spent years and millions of dollars trying to recreat the success of WoW with no game even coming close. Yet the message just does not seem to be getting across and MMOs become the only genre of video games that were AFRAID of innovation and trying something new. Warcraft was a pop culture phenomenon, it's success could never have been replicated. The best way to compete with it would have been to try something completly different imho.

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It is nothing but excuses. They blame this and that for its decline, instead of just accepting what it is, and getting on adding content.

Nothing in that "state of the game" is any future content mentioned, and there really is no need to go on about Devs leaving. As long as they had content mentioned coming, which they do not, then devs leaving should be no concern

It is just a whole lot of nothing

What do they have for planned for 1.6? Which will no doubt come mid January conveniently increasing the "6 weeks for content " promise

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Two topics, same people, same replies. This game is in a limbo for now. i think people need to move on and focus on better games out there ike GW2, TSW...hell even Rift and EQ2 are churning out content on weekly and monthly basis.

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It is nice to see this game rollout the First state of the game letter. I wish they had been doing this sooner. I'm glad to see my concerns are being addressed by the developers. I think the game is Awesome, I just want the bugs fixed and More content. I'm glad to see they have there pulse on the community that is playing and enjoying the game. I am really enjoying this game and look forward to a better experience in the future and I have great confidence that Jeff Hickman will continue to deliver like he always has!

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It took Sony over 2 years to realize that they need to destroy SWG with the NGE in 2005.

Congratulations Bioware for not getting the issue at hand and doing something aweful no matter what. Lacking players is the least of the games issues... your F2P launch is your NGE - Ignoring the players desires and just doing what you want. Romneyware 2k12. Bye bye. ;)

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Originally posted by Czanrei

Even though I am a huge Star Wars geek, I refuse to play SWTOR even now that it is F2P. Myself and many others tried to offer suggestions during beta and even fell for buying the collector's edition only to be let down upon launch. I tried playing the game a few months after launch but the devs there will never reverse the damage they have done in trying to create a believable SW mmo.

The game is and always will be WoW in space, which is a waste of time and money even now.

Most devs these days don't get that the reason MMOs became popular in the first place was the vairety of options in creating a character they could connect to and affect the persistant world in which their characters lived.

These days, most devs are obsessed with trying to make a quick buck and push out unfinished cookie-cutter MMOs with little to know choice of options in character creation living in tiny cloned gameworlds using unimaginative Uis. Not to mention always releasing with few content and zero replayability.

If anything, it is those devs who will ultimately cause the fading of the mmo genre because they are burning gamers out who end up going from game to game trying to find one to stick to that is like the MMOs of old.

I say to the devs, bring back choice, variety, originality, and embrace the sandbox genre.

Exactly this. We bought two CE's even though we were in beta (and disappointed by it), because we were told "it'll be in at launch" (pick something, anything). We were told the builds we were playing weren't launch builds, but guess what...It was very disappointing from a good company like Bioware, and I don't think I want to play anything that might come out of their studio anymore. Especially now that EA owns them.

You'll want to look at The Repopulation. Those guys are citing SWG as their inspiration, and they're in alpha right now. It looks like the game we've been wanting for a long time :)

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Originally posted by JosephJR

i am resub ,after 5 months pausing & game population looking OK

Can't understand why EA going to F2P crap

Why? because even after they consolidated the servers, their still declining in player numbers, going F2P is like the last chance saloon for this game, trouble is, this is one role of the die that is liable to end up snake eyes..